Teachers in Bungoma East are demanding for the removal of the District Educational Officer, Mr. Charles Ang’iela over claims of poor administration in the running of educational matters in the district.

Through the Kenya National Union for Teachers (KNUT) Executive Secretary Bungoma East district, Mr. Aggrey Namisi, teachers have launched complains expressing their dissatisfaction and disappointment on the way Mr.Ang’eila has been conducting public office and demanded his transfer or dismissal.

Speaking at a benevolent and burial scheme meeting for teachers they raised concern over the decline in academic standards and performance in the district in both primary and secondary national examinations.

The KCPE performance has been recorded to decline year after year since his tenure in office in 2009 where the mean score dropped from 258.52 of 2008 to 253.51, then down to 250.62 in 2010 and last year’s 246.72.

Similarly statistics show that in KCSE the district dropped in performance index from 5.2 in 2010 to 4.7 in 2011.

The district is now faced with a crisis where by 12 primary schools in the region have  received no deputy Head teachers all because the DEO has failed to constitute a panel to interview and select people for the positions despite the advertisement by the district staffing officers since January 2012.

According to Mr.Namisi, the DEO has failed to put intervention measures in place to improve the academic standards in the district and therefore, contributed to the consistent decline in performance.

The DEO has been accused for alleged misuse of education funds for his own personal interests instead of using it to support educational programmes that improve academic standards.

“We have verified details from a petrol station in Webuye that shows that Mr.Angiela uses government money on private business like fueling his vehicle for travelling to his rural home in Bondo,” said Mr.Namisi.

DEO has been blamed as well for not funding co-curriculum activities in schools despite the fact that schools pay in money to his office that are to be used for such events.

Mr.Namisi has revealed that the DEO uses the standard assessment and investigations reports from QASO to intimidate and extort money from principals and head teachers of schools in the district.

“For those head teachers who have a bad record perhaps, he uses the information to intimidate and blackmail them so that they have to bribe him to keep their positions instead of guarding against such malpractices,” said Mr.Namisi.

Mr.Namisi also says that teachers that ask for transfer with genuine reasons are never transferred and yet they might be seeking the transfer to a more conducive environment depending on their health conditions.

Mr.Namisi claims that there has been no educational meetings as well us education day this year despite that fact that it is always carried out in February each year giving a chance for the DEO to chart the way forward for the district’s academic situation.

At the end of the meeting, the teachers concluded to write a 7 days’ notice to the District Commissioner Bungoma East Mr. Adan Gedow to look into the issue to see to it that the DEO is removed from the district failure to which they vowed to demonstrate against him.